Musicplustv.com is a 24/7 online network broadcasting exclusive shows, interviews, live performances, music videos and other video, audio and image content. The company was founded by Marc Cubas and Dennis Tzeng towards the end of 2003 and went live on June 15, 2005. At the end of March this year, the site has included social networking and on-demand video hosting and archiving capabilities to its third version. By doing so, the site has also increased traffic tremendously.

I recently spoke to the Director of Media Relations, Bryan Kim about his site and this is what he had to say:

How did the idea come about?

“Marc and Dennis wanted to build a platform for talented and emerging artists. To this day, every employee and contributor at MusicPlusTV is an avid music lover.”

How does the site differ from other online broadcasting sites such as MySpace and YouTube?

“We’re often compared to MySpace and/or Youtube, and while we do offer social networking and file hosting, our main platform focuses on our own television content production. All M+ shows are professionally produced and edited, ensuring a measure of consistent, branded quality that is usually absent in the vast majority of user-generated content. In many ways, it’s the natural evolutionary step from the purely user-generated content era. In essence we combine the best in traditional and new media television experience, offering the passive experience of watching a continuous channel as well as accessing past content on demand in a social, interactive hosting platform.”

Who do you see as your competition?

“ManiaTV, based in Denver, is probably the most direct competition in that they’re the only ones that offer a streaming, network-quality television channel online. They’re a lot better funded and hyped than MusicPlusTV, but our audience is bigger. And while I’m a bit biased, I believe our online platform is richer and our content, more compelling.”

Can you describe the underlying technology behind the site, and how the site works for users?

“The live television stream is streamed via Windows Media Player. The on-demand video content is played via MusicPlusTV’s custom Flash player. Every piece of content is associated with an embed code that users can then use to post any piece of video content. All content is hosted in their appropriate profile pages. Subscribed users (subscription is free) can host up to 100 files of each: videos, pics and audio. Each file can be as big as 120 MB. We’re currently workingon a robust customization system that will serve the needs of both the amateurs and professional designers.”

Have you raised any outside funding to this point?

“Marc Cubas, CEO and Co-Founder, personally provided the seed money for MusicPlusTV. Last November, we received an investment from Kenai Investment, a Bay Area based private equity firm. We are currently talking to several potential angel investors at the moment.”

Overall, a very proactive site that offers various user friendly features such as commenting on content, a news blog, various category or keyword searches for content. I did come across content that was not exactly related to certain categories, but that is not much of a concern. As traffic and the site grow; changes are bound to take place as the site adapts to new demands. In addition, I like the fact that the video content is fully-embeddable and the multiple file uploader option is a great time saver. These guys are on a roll and I hope to see more trademark content in the future.